Thursday, August 13, 2009

Dilemna

Quiltet 1 is SOLD Quiltlet 3 is Sold

Each Piece is For Sale $45 US inclusive of postage

As I have said we have been working on a book entitled Caravanserai for my daughters VCD folio- for her final exams. Last week we went to open day at RMIT- and we were really enthused by the Visual Communication course - it seems right up her alley- it requires a really good folio to get in. My daughter is designing the book and layout- I am providing the text, photos and textile works which will form the basis of the book- looking at our Syrian encounters and how they have inspired my textile work. We have hit a snag however - we have done a few runs of getting books printed but my photos are probably not of sufficient resolution to do my daughters hard work justice or to meet her hopes of submitting the best possible folio.

So it puts us in a real dilemna- the go with what we have or go to Syria and rephotograph. There are a few problems- I have to renew my passport ( least of the problems), I have a very small window of opportunity as she will obviously need the school holidays to work on the project so that we can get it printed in time- so I need to go early in September, but the biggest issue is budget. I manage to survive at what I do by living on a very tight budget, that is fine I have been doing that since 1995 and it is part of daily life, but the cost of going to Syria would be outside my budget. One thought that occurred to me is I could work like the blazers and make more Teapot and Rosewater jug pieces ( the sales of the last two days have encouraged me in this thought) and hope to sell them. I think the price is very reasonable as there is quite some process involved in making them- papers have to be painted then printed, then transferred to lutradur, background fabric needs to be dyed, then the whole is stitched and then satin stitched bound.

Of course I won't mind going to Syria- but it would be for four days only madly running around photographing- but I also want my daughters folio to be the best that it can be. What would you do?

So dear readers would you be willing to put up your hand for a Teapot and Rosewater Jug embroidery quiltlet - no payment until the piece is complete? And as I said I would work like the blazers to get them done- but it would be good to have some idea of numbers before I commit to an airfare. Of course I am also willing to entertain any reasonable offer on work I have for sale and will later today or tomorrow load a new page on my Picturetrail website. Feedback would be appreciated!

9 comments:

Have you considered stock photography? It is usually sold on a sliding scale, depending on exclusivity and end use -- I would guess that your project would not need exclusive rights, nor would the end use as a student project command top dollar. I would think that you could find some nice stock photos for the well know sights in Syria and then you could use your own, more personal, photos smaller and/or manipulated (make them sepia toned, increase contrast and graininess, etc) interspersed to tell the story. I would think that by using stock photography (with proper credits of course), you and your daughter could create a stunning portfolio without putting so much stress on yourselves and your budget.

As it is your daughter's folio, I suggest that she go to flickr, choose 'advanced search' type 'syria' in the search box and scroll down to select 'search within creative commons'. This will bring up thousands of images that are available for use.

She'd learn something in the process, and it would be more truly her own work.

Actually It is my daughters' folio for Visual communication and design- she is designing a book about my work and inspirations- so her task is to create an original cover ( her work though using snippets of my work as part of the design)- it is my text and my photos- her job is the layout and design. The layout will incorporate her original researches into pattern and decoration- to add style to the pages- but the text will marry with my work and photos

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ABOUT ME

I am a Textile Artist and itinerant at the moment. My base at present is in Gellibrand though I teach around the world. I love to dye and print fabrics and assemble them into quilts with lots of stitching both by hand and machine. I also create my own linocuts for printing on fabric.